Systems and methods for providing biofeedback information to a cellular telephone and for using such information

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides systems, methods and apparatus for a wearable band adapted to be worn by a user. The wearable band may include one or more biometric sensors such as a pulse monitor adapted to monitor a pulse of the user, and a transmitter adapted to wirelessly transmit pulse information from the pulse monitor to a mobile device such as a cellular telephone or PDA. The wearable band does not include a display for the biometric information. Numerous additional embodiments are disclosed.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention claims priority to U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/087,698 filed Aug. 9, 2008 and entitled “SYSTEMS ANDMETHODS FOR PROVIDING BIOFEEDBACK INFORMATION TO A CELLULAR TELEPHONEAND FOR USING SUCH INFORMATION,” which is hereby incorporated herein byreference for all purposes.

The present invention also claims priority to and is a continuation inpart of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/426,193 filed Apr. 17, 2009and entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING AUTHENTICATEDBIOFEEDBACK INFORMATION TO A MOBILE DEVICE AND FOR USING SUCHINFORMATION,” which is hereby incorporated herein by reference for allpurposes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the use of biofeedback devices, andmore particularly to systems and methods for providing authenticatedbiofeedback information to a mobile device such as a cellular telephoneand for using such information.

BACKGROUND

Biofeedback devices such as portable heart rate monitoring (HRM) devicesare commonly used in fitness related activities for weight loss, goalheart rate (HR) training, and general HR monitoring. Such devices maysometimes be employed by healthcare professionals for chronic and/oracute heart condition monitoring and/or diagnosis.

Portable HRMs and other monitoring devices typically are expensive, andin some cases are cost prohibitive for many consumers. A need exists forinexpensive and/or simplified monitoring systems.

SUMMARY

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a wearable bandadapted to be worn by a user. The wearable band includes a pulse monitoradapted to monitor a pulse of the user at the user's wrist; and atransmitter adapted to wirelessly transmit pulse information from thepulse monitor to a cellular telephone. The wearable band does notinclude a display for the pulse information.

In some other embodiments, the present invention provides a systemadapted to monitor biometric information of a user. The system includesa wearable band having a pulse monitor adapted to monitor a pulse of theuser; and a transmitter adapted to wirelessly transmit pulse informationfrom the pulse monitor to a cellular telephone. The wearable band doesnot include a display for the pulse information and the cellulartelephone is adapted to receive the pulse information from the wearableband.

In still other embodiments, the present invention provides a systemwhich includes a plurality of wearable bands, the wearable bands eachincluding one or more accelerometers, an identification indicia, one ormore proximity sensors, and a communications device; and a mobile deviceadapted to communicate with one or more of the plurality of wearablebands and to determine an activity of a wearer of the plurality ofwearable bands based on information transmitted by the wearable bands.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary system for sensing,collecting and/or monitoring biometric information from a user accordingto some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an alternative exemplary system forsensing, collecting and/or monitoring biometric information from a useraccording to some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a side perspective view of an exemplary wearable band providedin accordance with some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram depicting an example system according to someembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting an example method according to someembodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In one or more embodiments of the invention, wearable monitors and/orsensors are provided which may communicate wirelessly with a mobiledevice such as a cellular telephone, personal digital assistant or otherportable computing device. For example, a wrist, ankle or other bodypart band, strap, bracelet or other securing mechanism may include oneor more monitors or sensors adapted to sense biometric information froma user and to transmit this information to a cellular telephone,personal digital assistant or other portable device. Exemplary biometricinformation that may be monitored includes, but is not limited to, heartrate, pulse rate, temperature, respiration, acceleration, skinresistivity, etc.

In some embodiments, a band or bracelet may be provided for each armand/or each ankle of a user to monitor arm and leg position during golf,tennis, running, etc., and to provide this or other biometricinformation to a cellular telephone, personal digital assistant or otherportable device. Such a system may be used, for example, to determinestride length during running, body position during a golf or tennisswing, “hang time” during a basketball dunk, and the like.

In one or more embodiments, an accelerometer may be provided within aband or bracelet. The accelerometer may be employed to measureacceleration during a golf, tennis, hockey, or other swing. Suchacceleration information may be wirelessly transmitted to a cellulartelephone, personal digital assistant or other portable device and usedto determine club, racquet or stick speed, club, racquet or stickvelocity, swing tempo, or the like. In some embodiments, suchacceleration information may be adjusted to compensate for the affectsof gravity. Software and/or one or more computer program products on thecellular telephone or other portable device may be employed to calculateor otherwise determine any relevant information.

For example, in a golf embodiment, the portable device may employ theacceleration information from a band or bracelet to determine (1)acceleration of a club during a swing (e.g., club head acceleration);(2) velocity and/or speed of a club during a swing (3) swing tempo; (4)ball-club contact; (5) ball-club contact force; (6) ball-club contacttiming; (7) follow through speed, timing and/or tempo; (8) number ofstrokes of a golf club and/or golfer; (9) predicted ball travel distance(e.g., based on ball-club contact force, club type, swing speed, etc.);(10) predicted ball position (e.g., based on ball-club contact force,club type, swing speed, etc.); (11) golf score; (12) golf handicap;and/or any other similar information.

In another exemplary embodiment, an accelerometer or other sensor may beused to monitor acceleration and/or striking force during a boxing ormixed martial arts (MMA) event (e.g., by embedding the accelerometer ina band or glove worn by a participant) and to provide this or otherbiometric information to a cellular telephone, personal digitalassistant or other portable device.

The present invention also aggregates various inputs from one or moresensors (e.g., in the wearable bands) and provides messages (e.g.,signals) to a central system (e.g., a game console, a mobile devicerunning a game program, etc.) indicating sensed “macro” statusinformation (e.g., compound activities/statuses) about a user and/or theuser's activity or experiences. In other words, based on verifiable datacollected/acquired and aggregated from one or more sensors, the presentinvention provides an authenticated or verified indication that a useris taking an action or experiencing a particular sensation or physical,physiological, or mental “occurrence.” This authenticated informationmay then be used to impact, alter, and/or adjust the central system(e.g., change game play on a game console). For example, a video gamethat wants to require that the user is maximally exerting himself mayrely upon an authenticated message from the apparatus of the presentinvention that confirms the user's maximal exertion. Thus the video gamedoes not have to evaluate or even be aware of the whole array ofparameters and corresponding raw data collected from various sensors(e.g., in the wearable bands) such as the user's heart rate (e.g., froman HRM) being above a certain percentage threshold, user perspirationlevel (e.g., from a moisture sensor) being above a certain threshold,user body temperature level (e.g., from a thermometer) being above acertain threshold, user impact shock level (e.g., from an accelerometer)being above a certain threshold, user acceleration/deceleration (e.g.,from an accelerometer) being above a certain threshold, user motionfrequency (e.g., from accelerometer(s) and/or proximity sensor(s)) beingabove a certain threshold, user speed of movement (e.g., from a GPS andclock) being above a certain threshold, user breathing frequency beingabove a certain threshold (e.g., from a microphone, HRM, etc.), userbreathing depth level (e.g., from a microphone, HRM, etc.) being above acertain threshold, user muscle flexing frequency (e.g., fromaccelerometer(s) and/or proximity sensor(s)) being above a certainthreshold, user blood pressure (e.g., from a blood pressure monitor)being above a certain threshold, user pulse oxygen level (e.g., from apulse oxygen monitor) being above a certain threshold, user blood sugaror insulin or cholesterol levels being above or below certain thresholds(e.g., from an automated blood tester), user muscle expansion (e.g.,from a measurement of the muscle size), etc. In other words, the presentinvention defines a protocol and an interface for providingauthenticated activity or status information about a user based on anaggregation of sensed data.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary system 100 for sensing,collecting and/or monitoring biometric information from a user (notshown). The system 100 includes a wearable band 102 having one or moremonitors or sensors (not shown) adapted to monitor or otherwise sense,for example, heart rate, pulse rate, temperature, respiration,acceleration, skin resistivity, or any other biometric information. Thewearable band 102 may (wirelessly) transmit the biometric information toone or more cellular telephones 104 a-b or other portable devices suchas personal digital assistants, MP3 players, portable video gameplayers, or the like. While two cellular telephones are shown in FIG. 1,it will be understood that any number of portable devices (e.g., 1, 2,3, 4, 5, etc.), differing types of portable devices, etc., may receivebiometric information from the band 102.

Each cellular telephone 104 a-b, or any other portable device receivinginformation from the band 102, may be programmed to process thebiometric information received from the band 102 (e.g., for generalhealth monitoring, determining swing information, monitoring sleeppatterns, enhancing video game performance by affecting a video gamecharacter or characteristic based on the biometric information, etc.).

In some embodiments, the band 102 may be flexible, continuous and/orwater resistant.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an alternative system 200 for sensing,collecting and/or monitoring biometric information from a user (notshown). In the embodiment of FIG. 2, four bands 102 a-d communicateinformation to a cellular telephone 104 (or other portable device). Forexample, a user may employ a band 102 on each arm and each ankle, ormultiple users may employ a band 102. Other numbers of bands and/orportable devices may be used.

FIG. 3 is a side perspective view of an exemplary band 102 provided inaccordance with the invention. In the embodiment shown, the band 102includes a temperature sensor 201, a pulse monitor 202, an accelerometer204 and an RF transmitter 206 for wirelessly transmitting informationfrom each monitor/sensor 200-204 to a cellular telephone, mobiledevice/HCD or other portable device. In some embodiments, eachmonitor/sensor 201-204 is embedded in the band 102 so as to beprotected, such as from moisture (e.g., sweat, water, rain, snow, etc.).Other numbers and/or types of monitors/sensors may be used. Any suitablecommunication protocol may be used to transmit information between theband 102 and a portable device (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, RF, optical,etc.).

In some embodiments, a cellular telephone or other portable device maybe employed to display exercise information for a user during exercise.For example, a stepper, elliptical or other piece of exercise equipmentmay include a crude or rudimentary display of calories burned, stepstaken, miles walked, pulse rate, etc. A cellular telephone, portablevideo game device, personal digital assistant, etc., receivinginformation from a band, bracelet, strap or the like may provide a muchmore enjoyable and interactive interface, for example, displaying anavatar representation of an exerciser, a mountain or hill or any otherenvironment for the exerciser to climb or pass through, exercisestatistics, graphs of exercise level and/or performance, etc.

In some embodiments, for example using multiple bands, the bands mayoperate as a mobile ad hoc and/or mesh network to allow the bands tocommunicate with each other and collectively provide relativepositioning information using information derived from, for example,built-in accelerometers, GPS sensors, identification signals, proximitysensors (e.g., sensors that determine distance from other bands basedon, e.g., received signal relative strength), etc. The relativepositioning information may be used to deduce the activity or positionof the wearer or wearers of the bands. For example, if four bands wornon the four appendages of a single user collectively determine andreport (e.g., via a wireless signal to a mobile device) that they areall within approximately 10 cm of each other, the mobile devicereceiving the signal may determine that the user is touching his toes.If within, for example, approximately 10 seconds, the signal is precededby a prior signal from the bands worn on the user's ankles that theankle bands are less than approximately 10 cm apart from each other butboth the wrist bands are greater than approximately 40 cm from the anklebands, the mobile device may deduce that the user has just bent over totouch his toes.

As indicated above, in addition to proximity sensors, accelerometers inthe bands may be used to sense and report data that corroborates thededuction that the user has bent over. In addition to corroborating theuser's body motion, the accelerometers may also be used to determine theorientation of the user's body before, after, and/or at the time of themotion so that, for example, it may be determined that the user istouching his toes while seated versus toe touching while standing.Further, a fifth band (or strap or sensor e.g., included in the mobiledevice) may be worn on the user's torso and allow the system todetermine for example, whether the user's arms and/or legs are extending(e.g., stretched) during the toe touch or retracted (e.g., in an“Indian-style” position) during the toe touch.

In some embodiments, the body position and user activity informationthat may be deduced by the system of wearable bands and mobile devicedescribed above, may be further enhanced by incorporating other sensedbiometric information such as, e.g., heart rate, body temperature, andidentification (e.g., voice identification) information. For example,heart rate information detected and transmitted by the wearable bandsmay be used to deduce that the user is engaging in strenuous activityand combined with, e.g., corroborating body positioning and orientationinformation as well as identity information (e.g., a recorded responseto a voice prompt from the mobile device, a user specific heart rhythmpattern, etc.), the system can reliably deduce that the particular useris, e.g., performing a particular exercise or has achieve a particularbody status, e.g., physical exhaustion.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, a flight simulator videogame may be provided on a cellular telephone (and/or other mobiledevice, e.g., any number of handheld computing devices (HCDs) includingcellular or other telephones) and biometric data from one or more of thewearable bands (or other measurement/sensor devices) may be used toaffect the flight simulator video game. For example, for a plane to takeoff or land safely from an airstrip in the game, a user may be requiredto have a relatively rapid pulse or heart rate (e.g., 130 pluspulses/minute). In this manner, a user may have to pedal, run, row, walkor otherwise exercise harder to take-off or land a plane in the videogame. Thereafter, the user may be required to maintain a predeterminedpulse or heart rate in order keep the plane in flight. The longer theuser exercises, the longer and/or better the user does at the video game(e.g., by keeping the plane airborne). Some cellular telephones/HCDs,such as, for example, an iphone available from Apple, Inc., ofCupertino, Calif., include one or more accelerometers for measuring theorientation of the cellular telephone (for affecting display size andorientation). In some embodiments of the invention, such accelerometersmay be used as part of the flight simulator to control position (e.g.,level, climbing, lowering) of the plane. In other embodiments, externalaccelerometers or other sensors, such as in one or more wearable bands,may measure arm and/or leg position and/or orientation and provide suchinformation to the cellular telephone. The cellular telephone may thenuse this position and/or orientation information to control position ofthe plane. For example, a game player may be required to wear two wristbands and two ankle bands, each with accelerometers or other positionand/or orientation sensors. Movement of the game player's arms and legsmay be used to control movement of the plane. For example, a game playermay be required to lay on his or her back and raise his or her legstogether to have a plane climb, lower his or her legs together to havethe plane dive, raise one leg only to have the plane bank right, raisethe other leg only to have the plane bank left, or the like. Similar orother plane movements may be controlled by arm position and/ororientation. Note that such a video game embodiment may be performed ona non-mobile or non-portable video game platform (e.g., a Microsoft®xBox, Sony® Playstation®, Nintendo® Wii™, etc.).

In another embodiment, an MMA or similar fight-based video game may beprovided on a cellular telephone/HCD and biometric data from one or moreof the wearable bands or other measurement devices may be used to affectthe fight-based video game. For example, a video game player may berequired to wear two wrist bands and two ankle bands, each withaccelerometers or other position and/or orientation sensors. Movement ofthe game player's arms and legs may be used to control movement of avideo game player (e.g., blocking, striking, kicking, kneeing, throwing,jumping, etc.). The difference between blocking and striking (orkicking) may be determined based on, for example, movement of an arm orwrist band toward the cellular telephone (e.g., using multi-axisaccelerometers or other multi-axis sensors). Such a system mayadditionally or alternatively be used to teach self defense and/orMartial arts, or other exercise activities, such as Kung Fu, Tae KwonDo, Muay Thai Boxing, Tai Chi, Pilates, Yoga, Dance or the like byproviding a user real time feedback about proper and improper bodyposition and/or orientation. For example, biometric readings frommultiple acceleration and/or other monitors coupled to a user may becorrelated with body position and/or orientation (e.g., arm, leg, torso,hip, head or other body part position, relative position and/ororientation) and then used during a video game or instruction lesson.Note that such a video game embodiment may be performed on a non-mobileor non-portable video game platform (e.g., a Microsoft® xBox, Sony®Playstation®, Nintendo® Wii™, etc.).

In some other embodiments, a user may employ one or more wearable bandsand/or other biometric sensors in combination with a cellulartelephone/HCD or other similar device to collect biometric informationduring a predetermined time period (e.g., during all or part of a workday, daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) and then employ this information toaffect video game play. For example, a user may wear a band (e.g., awrist band) that measures and transmits pulse or heart rate informationto a cellular telephone during the course of a work day. Otherinformation may be collected such as calories consumed. At the end ofthe work day, the user may analyze the collected data to determine oneor more of periods of high stress, calories burned, etc., and/or may usethe information to affect video game play (e.g., such as on a train rideback from the office). The cellular phone may also employ thisinformation to determine (1) recommended food choices based on caloriesconsumed or burned, types of food already eaten, etc.; (2) additionaltypes or amounts of exercise the user should perform; or (3) the like.

Any of the above or alternative embodiments may be used alone or incombination to provide “fitness-enhanced” entertainment.

In some embodiments, the system may include a calibration function thatallows the user to provide examples to the system of the way the userperforms/achieves particular activities, body positions/orientations,and body status information. For example, the mobile device/HCD mayinstruct the user to lie still for ten second, jog in place for tenseconds, perform ten “jumping jack” exercises, perform ten“squat-thrust” exercises, and then lie still again for ten seconds.While the user executes the five different exercises/activities underthe direction of the mobile device (e.g., via voice commands from themobile device), the system may sense and record data that will allow thesystem to reliably recognize similar body positions, activities, andbody status as well as combinations of data that indicate other bodypositions, activities, and body status. Along with activities that thesystem actually “observes” (e.g., senses and records) during normalactivity, the example data captured during the calibration function(e.g., during directed resting, jogging, jumping jacks, squat-thrusts,and post-exertion resting) may be used to build a database (e.g., storedon the mobile device) of activities, body positions/orientations, andbody status correlated to sensed data so that particular activities (andsequences of activities) may be quickly and reliably be identified. Forexample, in embodiments where the system includes a GPS and a clock, theactivities, status, and locations of a user may be logged throughout afull day or over a period of weeks or years.

In some embodiments, the system may include an authentication functionthat uses various pieces of sensed information to corroborate the actualperformance of activities, bodypositions/orientations/locations/identity, and body status of the userand to provide a signal that reliable indicates that a particular userhas in fact, e.g., performed an activity at a given time and place. Thesignal from this authentication function may be used and relied upon asproof, for example, that a user performed an exercise (e.g., ran 10 lapsat a track in 20 minutes on Aug. 10, 2009) or engaged in an activity(e.g., loaded a truck with heavy items, drove 150 miles, and unloadedthe truck all in four hours). For example, the combination of heart ratedata indicating the exertions of user, voice identification dataindicating the identity of the user, GPS data indicating the locationsover time of the user, wearable band proximity and accelerometer dataindicating the body position/motion of the user, may all be captured,stored and correlated to authenticate the user's actual performance of aspecific activity or set of activities.

In some embodiments, the present invention may include a protocol (e.g.,a software protocol implementable and executable on a mobile or otherdevice, including a system in accordance with the present invention) forsensing, collecting, storing, authenticating, and securely reporting auser's actual performance of activities, bodypositions/orientations/locations/identity, and/or body status of theuser. In addition the protocol may include a function (e.g., anapplication program interface (API)) for requesting authentication of aparticular activity or body position/status. In other words, the presentinvention may include software (e.g., an authentication module) thatallows, for example, another program (e.g., a video game application, amedical treatment program, a business workflow tracking program, etc.)to request and receive an indicia (e.g., a signal, an encrypted code,etc.) from the system of the present invention that reliably verifiesthat a user has engaged in a particular activity or achieved aparticular body status. For example, the system 200 of the presentinvention may provide an interface to a game system (e.g., a video gameconsole, a program running on the mobile device of the system itself,etc.) that (1) rewards the user with enhanced game features and/or (2)allows the user to control the game, based on performance of specificactivities, body positions/orientations/locations/identity, and/or bodystatus. The interface may include a set of predefinedactivities/statuses such that the game may request and receiveverification of the activities/statuses by calling the function with anynumber of various pre-defined parameters such as an identifier of theparticular activity/status of interest (e.g., activity ID), the time ofthe activity/status (e.g., timestamp), a degree of exertion associatedwith the activity/status (e.g., level, intensity), a rate associatedwith the activity/status (e.g., pace), an efficiency or performancerating associated with the activity/status, etc.

Further, in some embodiments the interface may provide the game withaccess to historical information regarding the activities/statuses ofthe user stored in a historical database. The database may include oneor more fields that identify recognized or deduced activities of theuser wearing the bands. The activities may be macro or compoundactivities/statuses that are aggregated combinations or sets ofsub-activities and/or sensed data that together corroborate theperformance of the compound activities/statues.

An example list of compound activities or macro status information thatmay be determined/deduced and authenticated using the systems andprotocols of the present invention (e.g., an authentication module 406)includes determining that a user is maximally exerting himself (e.g.,based on heart rate being greater than a percentage of the user'smaximum heart rate, perspiration, body temperature, impact shocklevel/acceleration/de-acceleration, motion frequency, speed (delta GPSinformation), breath frequency, breath depth, muscle flexing, bloodpressure, pulse oxygen level); user is sleeping; user is relaxed; useris moderately exerting; user is minimally exerting; user is dead; useris unconscious; user is intoxicated; user is in pain; user is in shock;user is experiencing a heart attack (fibrillation); user is aroused;user is experiencing a particular physical sensation or stimulation;user is conscious; user is awake; user is in free fall; user is dizzy;user is X% exhausted; user is at physical failure; user is hot/cold;user is dehydrated (e.g., based on electrical measurement of user's bodyrelative water content); user blood sugar level is high/low (e.g., basedon an automated blood test); user insulin level is high/low; user ishungry/thirsty; user is laughing; user is suffocating; user isasphyxiating (e.g., based on blood oxygen level measurement); user isoverweight; user is out of shape; user is fit; user is under-weight;user is tense; user is nervous; user is angry; user is lying; user isbeing tickled; user is sneezing; user is depressed; user is happy; useris confused; user is afraid; user is running at X% maximum speed; useris walking at X% maximum speed; user is dancing; user is swimming; useris skipping; user is jumping; user is punching (with left/right)(jab/cross/hook/upper cut/8 point blocking); user is kicking(left/right) (front/side/round house/back); user is rowing; user isprone (front/back); user is kneeling/sitting/standing; user is throwing(left/right); user is balancing; user is dribbling a ball; user iscradling a lacrosse stick; user is cradling a baby; user iseating/drinking; user is crying; user is driving; user is swinging abat/tennis racket/golf club/lacrosse stick; user is typing; user isthinking; user is talking, and the like. These activities may be storedin a database of activities 408 that associates each of the activitieswith stored patterns of biometric information.

Further, in some embodiments the interface may provide real time accessto the current activities/statues of the user. For example, the systemof the present invention may provide a stream of data reporting actualsensed data and/or recognized activities that are deduced from andcorroborated by the sensed data. The stream of recognized activitiesdelivered by the interface may be encoded or even encrypted so that thegame (or other application requesting the information) can have a highdegree of confidence that the activities/statuses are authentic. Thus,the game (or other application requesting the information) canreasonably decide to transfer value based on the authenticatedinformation. For example, a valuable contest prize can be awarded to thewinner of a game that relies on the protocol of the present invention toverify that the winner in fact performed the required activities to winthe game. Likewise, an employer can allow a workflow program running ona host system to decide to pay an employee for performing a task (e.g.,load and drive a truck) by using the systems and protocols of thepresent invention to verify timely and efficient performance of thetask.

Turning to FIG. 4, an example system 200 of the present invention isdepicted. Any number of wearable bands 102 (only one pictured) or othersensors may be in communication (e.g., wirelessly) with one or moremobile devices/HCDs 104 (only one pictured). The wearable bands 102 mayinclude the features 201, 202, 204, 206 as described above with respectto FIG. 3. The mobile device/HCD 104 may include any number of gameapplications 402A, 402B, 402N or other applications. The gameapplications 402A, 402B, 402N may run on an operating system 404 thatgeneral directs and controls basic functions of the mobile device/HCD104. The mobile device/HCD 104 may also include an application programinterface (API) 406 that allows game applications 402A, 402B, 402N topresent requests and receive data from an authentication module 408 thatincludes an activity database 410. As described above, an authenticationmodule 408 may provide authentication of a users activities to the gameapplications 402A, 402B, 402N via the API 406. In some embodiments theAPI 406 may include the authentication module 408 and/or the activitydatabase 410 or other databases discussed above.

Turning to FIG. 5, an example method 500 of the present invention isdepicted as a flow chart. In step 502, a plurality of biometricinformation of a user is sensed. In step 504, the biometric informationis transmitted from wearable bands worn by the user to a mobiledevice/HCD. In step 506, the transmitted information is received in themobile device. In steps 508 to 512, an activity associated with theinformation is identified or determined. In step 508, the information isaggregated together. In step 510, the aggregated information is comparedto a database of activities. In step 512, a best match between theaggregated information and stored patterns of information eachassociated with an activity in the database of activities is found. Instep 514, a signal indicative of an authentication that the activity hasbeen performed by the user is provided to a game application running onthe mobile device.

Accordingly, while the present invention has been disclosed inconnection with the exemplary embodiments thereof, it should beunderstood that other embodiments may fall within the spirit and scopeof the invention, as defined by the following claims.

1. A system comprising: a plurality of wearable bands, the wearablebands each including one or more accelerometers, an identificationindicia, and a communications device; and a mobile device adapted tocommunicate with one or more of the plurality of wearable bands and todetermine an activity of a wearer of the plurality of wearable bandsbased on information transmitted by the wearable bands.
 2. The system ofclaim 1 wherein the mobile device includes an authentication module andone or more game modules.
 3. The system of claim 2 wherein theauthentication module is operative to aggregate information transmittedby the wearable bands and provide authenticated activity information tothe one or more game modules.
 4. The system of claim 3 wherein theauthentication module includes a database of activities, and wherein theauthentication module is operative to match aggregated informationtransmitted by the wearable bands to one or more activities in thedatabase of activities and to select a best match from among the matchedone or more activities.
 5. A method comprising: sensing a plurality ofbiometric information of a user; transmitting the biometric informationfrom wearable bands worn by the user to a mobile device; receiving thetransmitted information in the mobile device; determining an activityassociated with the information; providing a signal indicative of anauthentication that the activity has been performed by the user to agame application running on the mobile device.
 6. The method of claim 5wherein determining an activity associated with the informationincludes: aggregating the information; and comparing the aggregatedinformation to a database of activities.
 7. The method of claim 6wherein determining an activity associated with the information furtherincludes finding a best match between the aggregated information andstored patterns of information each associated with an activity in thedatabase of activities.